Leadership Potential
by racle
Summary: When Robin is incapacitated due to injuries from a fight, the other Titans must each learn how to lead the team. Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy take turns being leader of the Teen Titans and they each lead the team through different challenges in
1. Default Chapter

Chapter 1: We Wish You Well

The alarm sounded once again at Titans Tower. Once again the Titans were off to stop Cinderblock and Overload from destroying the city…

Outside the power plant, Overload was steadily being forced to retreat as Raven broke open water pipes in an attempt to splash him. Beast Boy wasn't really needed and so he sat by and did nothing. Overload ran around a corner and Raven followed, using her powers to drag some water with her. Down the streets a white sizzling electric current flowed, pursued by black water, neither catching up to the other.

Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg stood with their backs to the ruined bank and Cinderblock preventing an easy escape. Cyborg fired his sonic cannon, pushing Cinderblock back a few steps. Cinderblock recovered and picked up a nearby car, hurling it at the Titans, who scattered different ways. Quickly, he turned and picked up another car, holding it in front of himself just in time to let the car be riddled by green starbolts. He threw the wrecked car straight at Cyborg, who jumped over it. Another blue beam lanced out from Cyborg's sonic cannon and impacted Cinderblock, forcing him back. Robin tossed an explosive disk and just then saw an orange-gray blur recede from the roof of a nearby building.

"Slade," he growled angrily, and rushed off to chase down the figure, leaving his teammates to face Cinderblock.

Unexpectedly, the disk Robin had thrown moments before happened to cut across the path of Starfire's eye lasers. The resulting detonation was far greater than intended, and when the smoke finally cleared, Cinderblock was out cold.

"Wow, that was just like our Sonic Boom," commented Cyborg. "You should try that with Robin in our future battles."

They looked around, but Robin had already gone. His communicator signal was all the way across the city.

Raven continued to fly after Overload, breaking more pipes in an attempt to splash Overload. Beast Boy found a way to help: he morphed into a green elephant and sucked massive amounts of water through his nose, then blew the water at Overload. Overload's shape altered continually as he avoided the streams of water.

Robin dragged himself to his feet, propelled by the overwhelming determination to kill Slade. It was looking more and more impossible, as Slade used his demonic powers in combination with his martial arts.

"Robin, you can still be my apprentice," intoned Slade, "just call me whenever you come to your senses."

"NO!" screamed Robin, "I'm taking you down!" He summoned all his strength and ran at Slade again.

"You are only prolonging the inevitable," stated Slade calmly, "you cannot defeat me. You couldn't beat me when I was only human. And now that I have all of Raven's powers, you are even more hopeless than before!" Just as Robin struck out with his bowstaff, the form of Slade transformed into a flaming orange dragon and dived into the roof of the building they were on, leaving no trace behind. Robin looked around in frustration, when the orange dragon phased through the roof several meters away and again turned into Slade's familiar form. Robin tossed three explosive disks at Slade, but he held up his hand and a hemisphere of orange flame appeared around him. The disks exploded harmlessly on the shield of flame. Slade motioned to a nearby air conditioner on the roof. "Azarath metrion zinthos!" he shouted. The air conditioner was surrounded by a halo of red-orange fire and lifted off the roof, then headed straight for Robin. Robin rolled aside, still shocked at Slade's use of Raven's telekinesis, and jumped up to face Slade again. What he got instead was a spout of flame from Slade's hands. He cried out as the flame knocked him high into the blue sky.

Raven pointed at a nearby hydrant, which cracked open under a black halo. More water pursued Overload, who hastened to duck into a nearby apartment building. Raven started to follow, and then she heard a distant voice crying in pain, getting rapidly closer and closer. She gasped and looked wildly around when she realized it was Robin's voice. Beast Boy, too, was searching for the source of the voice. Suddenly he saw Robin's figure increasing rapidly in size—he saw where it was headed, and hurried to shout:

"Raven, look out!"

Too late, Raven looked up only to see the sun blocked out by a black figure. Before she could summon her powers to hold Robin in place she had already collapsed under him. Overload chose this opportune moment to step out of the building and notice Raven's pinned and vulnerable state. Beast Boy quickly turned into an elephant and drew as much water as he could, and fired at the same time as Overload. The water overpowered the electricity and Overload fell unconscious. Raven avoided disturbing Robin by phasing through him to stand next to him on the sidewalk.

Beast Boy and Raven looked at Robin's devastated body on the ground. Robin's cape and clothing had been mostly burned off, and he had been burned on all the parts of his skin that were exposed. Both his legs were bent at strange angles and a jagged, white bone protruded through his knee. A massive pool of blood was gathering under him.

Raven knelt down beside Robin and placed her hands on his broken leg. The bleeding stopped, but the ghost-white bone remained.

"I can't heal all the damage," said Raven, "We have to get him to a hospital!"

Beast Boy transformed into a horse and Raven carefully levitated Robin's damaged form onto Beast Boy's back. Beast Boy galloped as fast as possible to the hospital, while Raven flew above.

A few days later, the Titans were very glum inside their tower, having learned that Robin had broken both legs, one hand, both collarbones, one shoulderblade, and his skull. "He'll survive," the doctor had said, "but he'll be in a cast for several months."

Suddenly the alarm went off again. It was Plasmus, attacking a remote construction site. About ten seconds passed, the alarm klaxons ringing, before the Titans noticed that no one had moved. They had evidently all been waiting for someone to say "Titans, go!" When they remembered the circumstances, Cyborg said it. The Titans rushed into the T-car and Cyborg floored it across the city to the construction site.

Minutes later the Titans were at the site—suddenly, their communicators all beeped—it was a new alarm. Slade was at the hospital! Cyborg remembered that he was now the leader and issued the orders: "Beast Boy, Raven, get down to the hospital. Starfire, you're with me, against Plasmus."

If Robin had been there, he would have split the team differently, and for good reason. Beast Boy immediately morphed into a cheetah and sprinted back towards the hospital. Cyborg looked around and saw Raven rooted to the ground, a look of sheer terror plastered on her face. "Raven, what's the matter?" he asked, concerned. He turned around and vaporized an approaching sludge crab with his sonic cannon before turning back to her. Raven hadn't moved at all. Cyborg reached out and shook her with his hand. "Raven, can you hear me? Get to the hospital and stop Slade!"

Beast Boy reached the hospital. Flames were coming out of the window to Robin's hospital room. Beast Boy realized that he was alone, but there was no time to turn back. He morphed into an insect and flew through the open window.

When he got through the sheet of flame, he transformed back. Slade was standing by Robin's bedside, plunging a sharp bowstaff into Robin's helpless body for the twenty-seventh time. Holes leaked blood from all over Robin's body while several hospital staffers and guards lay unconscious by the door. The sight both disgusted and enraged Beast Boy. Beast Boy turned into a green rhino and rammed Slade from behind, knocking him down before he could deliver a 28th stab wound to Robin. Slade lost his balance and slipped on a pool of Robin's blood, falling right into the middle with a splash. In an instant Beast Boy was on top of him as a gorilla, smashing his fists down on Slade. Slade formed an orange shield with his powers and blocked Beast Boy's attack, then blasted him off with a stream of fire. Beast Boy landed hard on the floor back to his human shape. Both combatants rose again, both now soaked through with Robin's blood.

With Raven basically incapacitated, Cyborg figured that he had three usable Titans left. Since Slade was more powerful than Plasmus, Cyborg decided that he was more needed there and ran back to the T-car, started it up, and drove as fast as the car could go (over 300 mph) to the hospital.

Slade struck out with his bowstaff, letting his demon powers rest for the moment. Normally this would have made it easier, but Slade's bowstaff had been upgraded with sharp blades at each end, so Beast Boy was forced to dodge all the slashes. In the form of a green hummingbird he flitted all over the room, followed closely by Slade's slashing and swinging. Just at that moment Cyborg arrived at the open door and fired his sonic cannon. Slade, caught off guard, was knocked down again. Cyborg and Beast Boy both advanced towards Slade, who now had his back to the wall. He saw that he was outnumbered, and in a flash, morphed into an orange dragon and phased through the wall.

Cyborg's eyes widened in shock when he noticed Robin's bloodied corpse on the bed. Slade had given him enough holes for him to be a sieve! Finally the doctors and guards lying unconscious around the door came around. In a moment the doctors rushed to Robin's side and struggled to salvage the life that was slipping away. One of the guards ordered Cyborg and Beast Boy out of the room. As they stood to one side, the doctors were pushing Robin's stretcher through the door and then down the hallway. Cyborg and Beast Boy tried to follow them, but the guard stopped them just outside a double door labeled "Surgical Room".

Starfire and Raven arrived a few minutes later, just as a surgeon wearing a blue apron and facemask stepped out of the room. "He probably won't live," announced the surgeon impassively, "but we'll know pretty soon. As for the rest of you, you might want to figure out who's going to be the next leader of the Teen Titans…"

The Titans looked at each other mutely, hearing a disembodied, far-off voice that belonged to Raven saying "I have some healing powers, I might be able to help in there…" and then seeing the surgeon shrug and lead Raven back into the room.

The hours slipped by unnoticed. The moon soared into the night sky, then descended. The clouds in the east turned red with the approaching sunrise. Finally, the surgeon reemerged from the room. "Consider yourselves incredibly lucky," he said, "We had to do four organ transplants but it looks like your friend will survive!"

The Titans watched, relieved, while the other surgeons wheeled out Robin's stretcher. Robin was nearly unrecognizable, covered from head to toe in plaster casts and bandages of various colors and with his mask removed.

Two days later, the phone at Titans Tower was ringing off the hook. It was Cyborg's turn to answer the phone. Wearily, he stood up and took the phone up to his ear.

"Hello?" he asked. His exhaustion showed through in his voice, as it did in all the Titans' voices. For the past two days they had been receiving nearly non-stop communication from fellow heroes and private citizens alike, offering their condolences on the misfortune that had befallen Robin. Get-well-quick cards and letters were piling up in Robin's hospital room, which the Titans saw whenever they visited their leader.

As Cyborg was accepting the prayers of another Jump City resident, a nurse was walking into Robin's room with a fresh stack of get-well cards. She placed the tray on the table by Robin's bed and left him alone.

Robin saw the first note and froze.

_Dear Robin:_

_We offer our greatest sympathy for you as do many others around the country. We are especially sorry that our old boss Slade did that to you, and all of us at the Hierarchy of International Vengeance offer our best wishes and prayers for you. We all hope that you recover quickly. Please don't worry about the city and concentrate on your healing. We have decided to postpone our major plots until you get better. There's really no accomplishment in pulling off a big plot without overcoming our most respected opponent in the process._

_What Slade did to you really crossed the line. We always prefer not to kill, because part of the thrill of villainy is in facing off against worthy heroes like you. We have stripped Slade of his Hive membership and if he comes up again, we will stop him before the Titans are necessary. Again we apologize for the horrible thing our former master has done._

_Robin, you and the Titans are what gives us a sense of purpose. Every day when we train, we train to defeat you. When we go on missions, we aim to face you in a fair fight. If every heist, every attack went off without a superhero to stop it, our lives would be incredibly boring. We need you to test our skills on; with your help we learn from our mistakes and become better villains. We all truly wish for your speedy recovery!_

_Signed:_

_Overload_

_Plasmus_

_Blood_

_Cinderblock_

_Jinx_

_Gizmo_

_Mammoth_

_and the Hierarchy of International Vengeance Academy for Extraordinary Young People Class of 2006_


	2. Youth Leaders

Author's Note:

Corrections – I've been told that I made some mistakes in the first chapter. I shall explain. Although Slade has fire powers, I'm making him have telekinesis as well because those powers also come from the demon heritage. Raven's powers are from her demon side, so why can't Slade have them? Also, since Raven needs to say what my reviewer says is Azar's Peace Chant (I haven't read the comics, so I can't dispute that) in order to use her demon powers, I don't see why Slade can't do the same. (Maybe he doesn't in the series, but I'm going to give him these extra powers anyway.) As for Brother Blood's signature, I always thought "Brother" was some title, not part of his name. I didn't think a signature starting with "Brother" looked right, but then again maybe it should be that way. It's also entirely possible that Raven's powers do not extend to healing. I'm going only off the Cartoon Network series, and I haven't read the comics. The show and most of the fanfictions seem to imply that Raven can do more than remove pain, but that doesn't prove that they're all right. I may indeed have been mistaken, but in any case, I am too lazy to replace the first chapter, so I am leaving it as it is.

Chapter 2: Youth Leaders

The first of many weeks of calm passed. The Titans had surprisingly long periods of free time to visit their leader and in turn receive visits and condolences from other heroes. It was as if the entire world of villainy had ground to a halt to observe a moment of silence for the Boy Wonder. None of the major super-powered villains attempted anything. More often, in fact, members of the HIVE came to visit Robin and wish him well.

On the seventh day after Robin's injury, the calm was broken. The Titans had gone for seven days without a single alarm and had been hoping for an eighth, but some random street thug had just run out of money and decided that it was time to do another bank robbery.

The alarm showed on the Titans' communicators as they were at the hospital to check on Robin. Robin glanced at his communicator on the table as well.

"Hmmm…a single guy with a gun. He seems not to have any powers," commented Raven.

"Actually," stated Robin, "I think this could be complicated. We've never had to deal with a lethal case before. Those villains with superpowers were only ever trying to subdue us, not kill us. This man's different."

With this in mind, the four mobile Titans reached the bank quickly. As they approached, the gunman had already forced the teller to fill a bag with money. He now took the money and tried to back away from the Titans, keeping his gun pointed.

"What's the plan now?" asked Beast Boy.

"Beats me," answered Raven.

"Then are we simply to stand here and do nothing?" questioned Starfire.

The others shrugged. The robber was nearing his car.

"If Robin were here we would have captured that man by now…"

"Then why don't we do it?" demanded Cyborg.

"You're the leader, you tell me," replied Raven.

"Fine," Cyborg said, "Let's figure out how to take him down. First we need a way to protect ourselves from the bullets…"

"I can shield us," offered Raven, "or I could try to take his gun, but I can't do both at the same time."

Cyborg nodded. The robber had already gotten into his car and was starting it up. "Okay, you shield us while we distract him and one of us needs to sneak up behind him and snatch his gun."

The robber got his car started and drove off, exulting in his escape from the heretofore-undefeated superheroes of Jump City.

Cyborg leveled his sonic cannon arm at the escaping car and fired. The blue beam struck the back right wheel of the car, knocking it off. Sparks flew from the car's corner as it skidded to a halt.

"Titans, go!" shouted Cyborg, and the Titans ran towards the broken car. The robber left the bag of stolen cash in the car and drew a gun, pointing it at the four Titans.

"Raven, shield!" called Cyborg. Raven spread out her hands and a black hemisphere formed around the Titans. The frightened robber fired his gun several times. White cracks appeared on Raven's shield, but they soon disappeared as Raven painted them over with dark energy.

Cyborg turned to Beast Boy. "Find a way to get behind him and get his gun before he sees you," he ordered. Beast Boy transformed into a green fly and flew out under Raven's shield and high into the air. The robber, too far away to see the green fly and thinking that Beast Boy had disappeared, looked frantically around, expecting Beast Boy to reappear any second. About ten seconds passed before the robber remembered the other three Titans. Thinking that Beast Boy's disappearance was only a distraction, he re-pointed his gun at the other Titans. Beast Boy, who was actually the unnoticed green fly on the man's shoe, suddenly morphed into a green monkey, grabbed the barrel of the robber's gun, jerked the gun out of his hands, and threw it to Cyborg. Raven released her shield and caught the gun. The police had surrounded the area by now and the robber, deprived of his weapons, went handcuffed into a police cruiser.

Later that day, Robin heard the account of the Titans' unnecessarily long standoff with the robber.

"…So Beast Boy tossed us the gun, Raven got it and the police showed up just in time to take the credit," Cyborg finished.

"Good job Cyborg!" said Robin, "But it seems like you guys had some confusion at the beginning, and that could have been really dangerous. We're extremely lucky that robber didn't shoot you while you were talking. You have to know at the start who's going to be giving the orders."

The Titans understood and nodded. They knew their leader was right.

"Cyborg?" Beast Boy prodded Cyborg forward.

Robin nodded. "Well Cyborg it looks like you've been elected the leader for now," he said. "But there's something else that's bothered me. The superhero business is very dangerous. Any moment something could happen to you, Cyborg. Something could happen to all of us, like what happened to me. It's important that any of you be fit to take over if something happens to the leader. To put it simply you all need to learn how to lead the team."

"Okay…now how do we do that?" asked Cyborg.

"I think we can take advantage of the period of calm and practice," suggested Robin. "Why don't you take turns leading? The doctors say it'll be a year before I'm well again, so you can each be the leader of the Teen Titans for 3 months or something…I think the first turn goes to Cyborg."

Cyborg shrugged. "Seems pretty easy; all I do is say 'Titans go' at the beginning of every battle…"

"No, there's more than that, you have to decide the strategies and choose courses of action. It's pretty complicated."

End Chapter

Next chapter: What happens when the inexperienced and rash Cyborg commands a weakened team in battle? It's the perfect recipe for a crushing defeat...


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